You might have heard of the ‘mistake of fact’ defense strategy used by some when they may have actually broken the law, but because of additional instances you aren’t held legally accountable. Sometimes though you still have to defend yourself in spite of not actually being liable to the crime.
How can you use a mistake of fact defense strategy with driving violations?
You simply must show that there were circumstances beyond your control that caused you to receive a infraction.
One of the more successful and common ways of accomplishing this is by demonstrating that a traffic signal, if you were cited for failure to stop for example, wasn’t in working order due to an electrical storm or other circumstance. After severe storms a tree branch might cover the traffic sign or it could be completely fallen over. In this case you are not trying to speed over the limit or do anything else wrong. It’s a A good idea is to go and take some pictures or video of where the sign or traffic signal was at fault.
This can also happen with tickets where you might have failed to stop completely. For example a stop sign might not be there or the lines on the road are faded. Picture evidence will work the best when bringing this up to the judge.
For the most part judges should be understanding in cases where there are situations such as these. When doing this though, just be careful not to admit any wrong doing on your part.You would want to articulate that the jurisdiction didn’t arrange for proper traffic signage to the drivers in that particular instance.
In vary rare instances this defense can be used when the speed limit signs are changed and you happen to be one of the drivers that’s ticketed that day. This isn’t a really strong defense but it’s an option that you can use.
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